I'll never know when it happened. When I grew so attached. The
moment eludes me to this day. It started out a simple relationship.
She worked at my house and I gave her a place to live and protection.
That woman drives me mad. She likes to be a smart ass and to prove me
wrong. She wakes me up when I want to sleep late. Constantly she
bends my rules or finds a loop hole in them. But still… In the end
it is not because we are so different that we clash. It is more like
because we have a lot in common. Both of us have little memories of
the past and no knowledge of the future. We coexist in the same
space. The biggest difference is our ways is talking about love. Her?
She talks of it commonly, even jokingly some times. Me? I tense up
like a kid who's just been caught with his hand in the cookie jar.
But there is a question I have yet to ask myself. What would happen
if I lost her? What else? I'd move on. Well, that's the logical
answer. Then again, my feelings have been anything but logical. To
me, love is like fear. It is suppressed and contained., locked down
deep inside. Love however is more persistent then fear. Always coming
up when I do not want it to and at the most inconvenient times. Then
I hear it ringing loudly in my ears. A concerto by some guy who's
name is to hard to pronounce at this hour. Abruptly the song is cut
off by the smashing of glass, and jolt upright. Something is wrong.
Getting up I walked to the door and to the sitting room where I keep
the piano. Norman lays limp on the couch, unconscious. The window by
the piano is shattered. "Norman!" I rush to him and shake him.

"Beck… He took her Roger. He took Dorothy… To pier fourteen
down by the docks. the docks."

At this moment all the curses I have ever heard could not describe
how angry I am. "He is going to regret this. Damn it. Norman, I
will defiantly be back for dinner." I get dressed and slam the car
door as I leave. I punch it and plot a course for the docks. When I
approach them I get out ,once again slamming the door. I stomp to the
door and kick it open. "Beck it is to EARLY for this!"

Beck stands triumphantly atop a random box, "You really aren't
a morning person are you? Shame, Dorothy and I wanted to play a
little game."

He is really starting to piss me off, "I don't have time for
games."

"If I were you I'd make time." Dorothy jumps up from behind
a crate. She has Beck's headband on. Here outfit has changed. Now
she wears a traditional maid's outfit. "Dorothy? Would you like
Roger to play?"

Dorothy looks at me and said in a robotic voice, "Yes I would
like that very much. Roger please play with us. We are playing hide
and seek. You are the first to hide."

"You better find a place to hide quick. For if Dorothy finds you
it's goodbye Roger Smith." Then he just laugh manically.

"You have until ten, Roger Smith." Dorothy said. "ONE!"

I started running. Dorothy has no more control. And would not
hesitate to kill me. I had to give her time to break free or-"…EIGHT!
NINE! TEN! READY OR NOT HERE I COME!" I ran fast and hard.
Navigating through the crates I found one that was against a wall. It
had just enough room between it an the wall for me to squeeze in. I
hear crates smashing far away. She's going to level all the crates.
I take a deep breath and try to concentrate on the sound of the wood
as it splinters. From the sound of it, Dorothy is on the other side
of the room. I'll take this as a good thing for right now. If I
give her enough time she might break the hold Beck has on her on her
own. If she can't… I don't want to think about that. Suddenly,
the crate I am behind shatters and Dorothy and Beck stand next to
each other about ten feet away..

"She's really quite lovely isn't she, Roger Smith." He
puts his arm around her. And I suddenly wish looks could kill because
the way I'm glaring at him he'd have burst into flames by now.

"Don't you touch her." I growl.

"Oh but she is so pretty. Is she not? That lovely snow white
skin. Those deep black eyes." He holds her chin and turns her head
towards his. I flinch and he grins. "She is flawless. Except for
that emotionless look on her face. Nothing a little good love could
not cure. Not the kind you've been giving her."

"If I've told you once, I've told you a thousand times. She
is not my lover, you dolt!"

"Oh, but that doesn't mean you don't want her to be." I
flinch again, and he grins letting go of her chin to dig in his
pocket. He pulls out a gun and hands it to Dorothy. "Roger Smith
has lost the game. It is time to say goodbye."

"Dorothy." I say almost pleadingly.

Dorothy points the gun a me. Her lovely pure white face does not
show any hint of emotion. "It is over, Roger Smith. Goodbye."
Then she pulls the trigger. I'm staring at her wide-eyed, wondering
if I just died. My whole life flashes before me in a single moment.
There were my years in the Military Police. But those ended abruptly
when I quit and became the Negotiator. After that it ass filled
mostly with empty rooms and loneliness. I hadn't had any real
companions after I became the Negotiator. But then came Dorothy. When
she came the house was suddenly alive. I no longer spent my nights
out on the town. I had something to come home to. And it irritated me
that only once had I ever seen her smile. It was when she sang for
her father at the Nightin Gale That may have been the only time she
was truly happy. I only wish I could have made her smile... I am
certain that if she was human, we would have fallen in love. Though
she was the exact replica of Dorothy Waynewright, to me she was
always just our Dorothy.

I'm surprised I don't feel any pain. I turn my head a bit.
There is a smoking bullet embedded in the wall not a inch from where
my ear was. Dorothy is staring at me wide-eyed. The gun clatters to
the floor. Beck is dumbstruck, not completely certain of what has
happened. Dorothy then turns, grabs the collar of his shirt and
hoists him up in the air. He struggles to get free to no avail.
"Dorothy, put me down. I command you to put me down."

"What shall I do with him, Roger?"

I shake myself a bit and look around. "Just put him in that
crate over there, Dorothy. We'll drop him off at Military Police
headquarters on the way home."

After I turned Beck in me and Dorothy drove on in an awkward
silence. Dorothy stare out the windshield, "I am sorry."

"Huh?"

"I was almost to late." she said looking down at her lap.

"But you weren't and that's what matters. Don't waste time
thinking about what might have been."

"I am sorry."

"What for now?"

"For wasting time."

I sighed, I'm just going to let it go, "Just try not to let it
happen again. Alright, Dorothy?"

"Alright." There was a long pause. In it we worked our way
home. When we were almost there Dorothy looked at me and asked,
"Roger?"

"Yes, Dorothy?"

"You could have picked a better hiding spot."

"Huh?"

"When you were hiding. It was a bad spot."

"You remember that?"

"Yes. When we get home I must wash. I can still feel Beck's
arm around me…" she rubbed her shoulder. Then looked at her lap.
"I did not like it."

"I hope you wouldn't. Beck is a criminal. You wouldn't see
him much between jail sentences."

"I believe Beck was only toying with us then. He dislikes any
relationship between humans and robots… Do you think we have heard
the last of him?"

Dorothy didn't say anything at first. But as we turned on to our
street, she asked. "You think I am pretty?"

"I-well… It's a figure of speech, Dorothy."

"That was not my question." Dorothy said, sounding close to
irritated. "I asked if you think I am pretty. Now I would like an
answer."

"There isn't a simple answer to your question, Dorothy."

"A yes or no would suffice."

I parked the car and opened the door abruptly. "Yes, Dorothy I
think you are pretty alright? Get off my back!" I get out, walk
around the side of the car, and onto the sidewalk.

Dorothy opens her door, "Roger, I am not on-"

"It's a figure of speech, Dorothy!" I yell over my shoulder
as I stomped off. She could be so complicated.

"Where are you going, Roger?"

"For a walk. I'll be back by dinner."

"Alright. Good day then."

I walked down the street to a bar where I sat in an end booth near
the window. It began to rain hard outside. I watched the rain roll
down the window in clear streaks. It distorted the view of the street
and gave it an otherworldly look. An old man at the bar walked over
and sat down across from me. "You look like you have a problem.
Would you like to talk about it?"

"No but I think I will anyway if you're willing to listen."

"I am." So I told him. I told him about my relation ship with
Dorothy and our conversation in the car and my departure. He sat
there and listened as I spilled my guts out to him. He nodded and
hmm-ed as I talked and seemed to be absorbing what I was saying.
"Well, son, you're obviously in love with the young lady. A man
reserves his truest and deepest love not for the kind of woman in
whose company he finds himself electrified and enkindled, but for
that one in whose company he may feel tenderly drowsy. All to often
do men fall in love through their eyes and not their hearts. We are
all born for love. It is the principle of life, and perfectly
natural. The fact that she is an android does not stop you from
loving her. Why should it stop her from loving you?" At that I
stood and thanked the man. The rain had let up during his speech and
I wanted to be home by dinner. I walked out the door and there stood
Dorothy just out of the window's view with and holding an umbrella.

She walked up to me and held the umbrella over my head, "It is
not wise to stand in the rain without an umbrella."

"Some people choose to stand alone in the rain without an
umbrella. That is what it means to truly be free."

"Well I choose to hold an umbrella over your head. That does not
make us any less free now, does it?"

"You're a trip Dorothy. What's it matter if I stand here in
the rain."

"If you get wet you'll get sick." I didn't know what to
say, as Dorothy stood there in the rain. We stood there for a minute
or two. Then I smiled.

"Thank you, Dorothy." I said taking the umbrella. "Why don't
we share it."

"That is very kind of you." she said stepping in closer.
Quickly she stood on her toes and kissed my cheek. When she pulled
back I saw the smallest turn of the corner of her mouth. Then we
walked home together in a blissful silence…

I'll never know when it happened. When I grew so attached. The
moment eludes me to this day. It started out a simple relationship.
She worked at my house and I gave her a place to live and protection.
That woman drives me mad… And I enjoy every mile.

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